CVE-2017-12261· NVD / CVE Program· CNA cisco

A vulnerability in the restricted shell of the Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) that is accessible via SSH could allow an authenticated,

A vulnerability in the restricted shell of the Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) that is accessible via SSH could allow an authenticated, local attacker to run arbitrary CLI commands with elevated privileges. The vulnerability is due to incomplete input validation of the user input for CLI commands issued at the restricted shell. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by authenticating to the targeted device and executing commands that could lead to elevated privileges. An attacker would need valid user credentials to the device to exploit this vulnerability. The vulnerability affects the following Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) products running Release 1.4, 2.0, 2.0.1, 2.1.0: ISE, ISE Express, ISE Virtual Appliance. Cisco Bug IDs: CSCve74916.

HighCVSS 7.8 · v3.0—No exploit No fix recorded

Local privilege escalation

BDU:2018-00195

Published: Nov 2, 2017
Updated: Jun 16, 2026
EPSS: 0.3% · 23th percentile
CWE: CWE-264

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Action score

Monitor

Low priority for now.

CVSS: 31 / 40 · 7.8 / 10
CISA KEV: 0 / 30 · Not listed
EPSS: 0 / 30 · 0.3%

Affected systems

Vendor	Product	CPE
cisco	identity services engine	cpe:2.3:a:cisco:identity_services_engine
cisco	identity services engine express	cpe:2.3:a:cisco:identity_services_engine_express
cisco	identity services engine virtual appliance	cpe:2.3:a:cisco:identity_services_engine_virtual_appliance

Affected versions

NVD version ranges (for catalog products). Add the product to your stack with a version and matching uses these.

cisco identity services engine1.4
cisco identity services engine2.0
cisco identity services engine2.0.1
cisco identity services engine2.1.0
cisco identity services engine express1.4
cisco identity services engine express2.0
cisco identity services engine express2.0.1
cisco identity services engine express2.1.0
cisco identity services engine virtual appliance1.4
cisco identity services engine virtual appliance2.0
cisco identity services engine virtual appliance2.0.1
cisco identity services engine virtual appliance2.1.0

Versions reported by the vendor

Affected version ranges reported by the assigning authority (cisco). Independent of NVD's CPE analysis and usually ahead of it.

n/a Cisco Identity Services Engine
- Cisco Identity Services Engineaffected

Same product

cisco: all records

Other highest-scoring records for the same primary product.

CVE-2025-20281Cisco ISE API Unauthenticated Remote Code Execution VulnerabilityKEV
99Now
CVE-2025-20337Cisco ISE API Unauthenticated Remote Code Execution VulnerabilityKEV
90Now
CVE-2026-76460Cisco Identity Services Engine Authentication Bypass VulnerabilityKEV
74This week
CVE-2025-20282Cisco ISE API Unauthenticated Remote Code Execution Vulnerability
52Plan
CVE-2022-20964A vulnerability in the web-based management interface of Cisco Identity Services Engine could allow an authenticated, remote attacker to inj
44Plan
CVE-2026-20186Cisco Identity Services Engine Multiple Authenticated Remote Code Execution Vulnerability
41Plan

Remediation

Which version to upgrade to

Fix versions compiled from the vendor, package registries and Microsoft. Verify the vendor's note before upgrading.

No fix version is recorded for this entry. Check the references for vendor advisories.

Exploit status

No known public exploit

No public exploit has been observed yet. That doesn't mean you're safe, only that the bar is a little higher.

Research context

For pentesters and researchers: attack profile, score disagreement, timeline, patch commits, credits, variant and chain candidates, bug bounty scope. All derived from existing data; no exploit code.

Timeline

From publication to today: proof of concept, Metasploit module, CISA KEV and fix record. Dates are as reported by the sources.

No dated events beyond publication.

EPSS, last 120 days

FIRST EPSS daily score; only changes of 0.01 or more are recorded (step chart).

Patch and commit links

Commit, PR and diff links among the references. A starting point for patch-diffing and variant hunting; fixes, not exploits.

No commit or PR link among the references.

Credits

All researchers

Finders, reporters and analysts named in the CNA record. Click a name for that researcher’s other records.

No credits in the CNA record.

Variant candidates

Same product, same weakness class, within 18 months. If the patch missed the root cause, the sibling bug is here.

No nightly-computed relations.

Chain candidates

An authentication bypass and a privilege-requiring bug in the same product, published close together: combined they may become an unauthenticated path.

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Bug bounty scope

No known public program.

Source: bounty-targets-data (public HackerOne, Bugcrowd, Intigriti, YesWeHack listings).

Technical details

Attack conditions

Someone with local access to the system can trigger it.
A low-privileged account is enough.
No user action is required.
No special conditions are required; it is repeatable.

If successful

Confidentiality: high · data can be read
Integrity: high · data or configuration can be modified
Availability: high · the service can be disrupted

Attack vector: Local
Attack complexity: Low
Privileges required: Low
User interaction: None
Scope: Unchanged
Confidentiality impact: High
Integrity impact: High
Availability impact: High

Weakness class (CWE)

CWE-264 · Permissions, Privileges, and Access Controls

CVSS vector

CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

nvd-primary

Attack context

MITRE CAPEC attack patterns and ATT&CK techniques for this weakness class (CWE). A starting point for detection rules and threat hunting.

MITRE has no CAPEC/ATT&CK mapping for this CWE.

Noroxi analysis

No Noroxi analysis for this record yet

We don't hand-write analysis for all 385,000+ vulnerabilities; that wouldn't be honest. For notable, high-impact vulnerabilities our team writes the mechanism, detection and remediation steps.

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Change log

No changes recorded on tracked fields yet. Score, KEV, exploit maturity and fix status changes appear here.

References

Vendor advisories and official records. Exploit/PoC links are deliberately left out.

All records